Interviews

We at Unwoven Literary & Arts Magazine, with Director Leslie Crum, brought together three artists: a woodworker, Michael Kendall; a dancer, Milenka Aurelio; and a poet, Michael Frazier. Working with each of them, seeing their collaboration unfold, and experiencing their original art has transformed our creative lives. The collaboration thematizes how the labyrinth constrains and enables the body and its movements, moving through and by dance, poetry, and wood labyrinths and mazes. A labyrinthine embodiment can be grappled with as a process and movement advancing different false starts, dead ends, revelations, and turns. These artists considered what a maze is and what a labyrinth is while examining these built structures for similarity, and found that they are linked in the sense of confusion they generate and how both serve as sites where belief comes into play. This is because when inside these structures, or when using them as metaphors, it was hard to tell them apart. That is how the exploration of “the body between the labyrinth & maze” took off. In the labyrinth-maze, our bodies and minds became entangled among both winding pathways that provoked reflection and multiple-way designs that puzzled upon entry. This confusion, along with deep feelings of conviction and crisis, became powerful metaphors in dance, poetry, and woodwork for our binding and profound entanglements, our human experiences with debt, addiction, and mystery, as well as the course of trust. Kendall, Aurelio, and Frazier helped us realize that these can be shared through a sense of solidarity, not just experienced in isolation.

Dancer - Milenka Aurelio Poetry written and read by Michael Frazier Woodwork by Michael Kendall owner of Pilsen Made Music by Viper a NYC based DJ and artist Directed by Leslie Crum Produced by Michelle Alexander the Co-Founder and Director of Interdisciplinary Art of Unwoven

During our inaugural reading, we shared a clip of an interview from our Interdisciplinary Artists Andre Barker Jr. He spoke about his process, inspirations, and technique behind these gorgeous portraitures. Thank you to Studio Abscura (Ruben J. Davila & Caleb Juza) and Cameron Crumley for helping us make this video possible!